Hello list I've sent a post with my first mail but it was lost (bad adress or so...) I am a young (42) pianoman from Paris (France) I am involved in pianos and piano technology for a while now (from a musician famaily, began to learn something about repairs at 19, worked in a shop since 1977 - do other things (computers)for some ten years , and come back to my first loves since 1995 in Paris. When I first had my little shop, I discovered that the lack of experience and the poor communication with others was in the way for my desire to provide the best service to my customers. After a few my activityu had to stop because I spend too time regarding the results (repairing the most often old pianos in the south of France) Since 2 years, I work now as an independant technician, 3 days the week for a big company (importing Young Chang, and first Yamaha retailer for France), . I do tunings, prepping, repairs on-site and in the shop. I tune and repair pianos for my customers too, try to do my best and working for musicians, studios, concerts hall when possible. I use a car and a scooter, doing action repairs in my home (very little shop indeed), I am looking for a real shop for 98, and maybe somebody to work with. I use a portable phone-book (PSION ) for adresses and dates and it is synchronzed with lotus Organiser on my P.C. "bref" the real up-to date pianoman ! (I intend to tune pianos via internet on line with my customers buyng 1 a computer, a tuning lever, and pay me for my intervention with master card !) My first tools case is 12 Kgs heavy and I have an other which is 6 Kgs ! I may thank you all for sharing so nicely your information. I really learned a lot reading of you (I receive the "journal" for 6 months) People here seems to have a quite different mentality, considering their knowledge as something very confidential. That makes very difficult for a young technician to learn how to work with efficiency. I've seen so many pianos who where repaired with a real lack of knowledje -i.e. with very heavy hammers "Renner, or not", causing the action to be totally non regulation-able (soory for my english) I will try to do my best to share what I can. I ought a SAT II SINCE 3 months, and I begin to master it by now. I intend to change for a SAT III becaus I dont like to thumb switch the notes Did you hear about some improvement in static control ? ( I understand there will be less problems because you will not manipulate as often thr SAT, but mine resets himself on hot days and carpet floors sometimes - I use a Wandewand TL most often, and a very heavy regular german tuning lever sometime.) Projects I intend to build a data-base for re-stringing (I use a PC german software to compute strings when I go for a re-stinging job on an old French piano, with original strings "jauge PINET" or "Muller". I have done it for an 1.80 Erard grand and a HARDMAN vertical and it works fine, providing a very good stability and an even sonority (by my opinion) If any one have strings mesurements (bass and plain strings) I will appreciate it. Whe could discuss to why compute strings after... By the way I will found it comfortable too to have mesurement for bass strings of modern pianos, (so I coud order directly the good string before I go to the customers site) As I will do some re-stringing on some Gaveau, Erard and Pleyel in January, I will take the mesurements then (it's a bit long job) I am not phisician aniway, so I don't master all of the instructions on the soft i.e; sounbord stiffness, suspended bridge, and some other parameters I would like to talk about with you. The software produce real precise computations, for exemple with a stiffness correction for old steel strings, so you can have an idea of what was the tension originally, graphics for many elements, and is surely the kind used in some factories. Aniway it is better than to look in a book to see if you are far of the breaking point. I hope I can progress in this way. I can copy graphic screens in PCX or some other format , but its initially a dos software. ( files =ascii or dbf) Thank you again for your messages. I use the net for 10 days only so I don' have the habit of the post, sorry if its a bit long, and excuse my english. Best regards ta all Isaac OLEG - PIANOTECH Piano Technician 19 rue Jules Ferry - VITRY sur SEINE FRANCE fax 033 01 43 91 01 62 P.S. BTW my little shop name is "PIANOTECH" but it is unvolontary I took the name !
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